


i promise to keep you warm

by DragonEyez



Series: one for the overly passionate [1]
Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Season/Series 02, Slow Burn, idiots to lovers, its not really a slow burn if the problem is just everyone being bad at communicating expectations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 04:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17073281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonEyez/pseuds/DragonEyez
Summary: another year has passed, and sypha and trevor return home. or at least, they thought they did





	i promise to keep you warm

**Author's Note:**

> rated t mostly for swearing and vague horniness? nothing worse than in the show but w/e
> 
> basically my and [maayan](https://twitter.com/merthurlin)'s dissatisfaction at that ending bc what the fuck was that
> 
> title from [naruto themed sexting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWetwBcmx0) by panucci's pizza

Much as Trevor hated to admit it, Alucard had treated the old shithole pretty well in the last year. It was looking less like, well, a shithole. The land had been cleared and the ruins cleaned up a bit. He even thought he saw a garden in one of the corners of the plot next to the castle. The idea of Alucard in a sunhat _gardening_ made him snort loudly, earning him an elbow to the ribs from Sypha.

“What the hell was that for?” He groused good-naturedly, rubbing at the spot. She had _sharp_ elbows. It just wasn’t fair, really. 

She turned her head, nose in the air slightly in such a classic show of Syphian disapproval that it brought a smile to his face. That was something that took some getting used to. The smiling bit. He’d smiled more in the last year than he thought he might’ve in his entire life and shit did _that_ take some getting used to. Sypha used to tease him, asking if he was broken, which only made him scowl at her, if only to prove a point. Not that _that_ worked because she’d only laugh at him and set the both of them off again. The thought made something inside of him warm, and he leaned against her, ignoring playful protests.

“That was because I could _sense_ you being a bastard about something. And no amount of _cuddling_ will make me forget about it.”

“That’s a bit unfair, don’t you think? Maybe I remembered a funny joke.”

Sypha shoved him off with a gentle push and Trevor went easily. “Nope. It’s a third magical ability I have. My ‘Trevor is being a Bastard sense’ is incredibly accurate. Spans for _miles_.”

“Now _that_ sounds like bullshit to me. But really, Sypha, you can’t tell me that the idea of our high and mighty vampire savior in a gardening hat doesn’t make you laugh as well.”

“Well if it’s so funny, you can procure your own herbs and salves the next time you get injured or deathly ill.”

Trevor swore at the sudden appearance of Alucard’s voice in his ear and pulled the horses up short. Sypha laughed at his surprise and turned in her seat to look behind her. When the horses were still, Trevor turned too, fixing his face to look incredibly put out.

“Jesus, we’re gonna have to put a bell on you. You’re like a bloody cat.”

Alucard looked unbothered, lounging on top of their wagon lazily, looking exactly like the aforementioned cat. He fixed Trevor with a predatory look that sent a shiver down his spine, but he didn’t let show. “Losing your edge are we, Belmont?”  


“Oh please.” Sypha raised up to kiss Alucard on the cheek, flicking Trevor on the ear at the same time. “Don’t you two start, we _just_ got here. And I’m _sure_ Trevor didn’t mean anything by what he said. (He felt the daggers of her words hovering threateningly over him). You probably look lovely in your gardening hat.”

“Mmm, I’m sure. Why didn't you send word of your arrival?”

“Are you telling me even the Prince of Night doesn’t appreciate surprises?”

Golden eyes narrowed until they were barely open as he stared down at Trevor. “I do, it just would have been nice to know I needed to call the exterminator beforehand.”

“ _Boys_.” She said it the way she might’ve said “rats” or “maggots.” They stopped sniping at each other to look at her warily. She was wearing her “I’m two seconds away from lighting a fire under your ass” face. Trevor still had unpleasant memories of the last time she had made that face. He could tell Alucard was smart enough to recognize the imminent danger as well. When Sypha realized she had their attention, she smiled brightly. “If you’re done measuring your cocks, can we continue on? I’m dying to get my hands on some of those books in the castle’s library. And of course to catch up with you as well, Adrian.”

An unfamiliar expression flickered across Alucard’s face, and he sat up very suddenly. “Yes, of course. I’ll go prepare some r- a _room_ for you. The horses can go on the property’s old stable.” And without another word, he vanished from sight with inhuman speed. Well, of course it was inhuman. He was a fucking vampire after all. Trevor shook his head before looking at Sypha with a raised eyebrow. 

“‘Adrian?’” 

“That _is_ his name, you know.”

“Yes, I know. It was just a bit of a surprise, considering the fact that we’ve never called him that. Ever.”

She made a little “hmph” noise. “ _You’ve_ never called him that, because, as I said earlier, you like to be a bastard. Now let’s go put the horses to bed so I can _read_. And have a bath. But most importantly read.”

Trevor couldn’t help but smile softly at the gleam that entered her eyes when she mentioned the library again and leaned down to kiss her on the corner of her mouth. “Your wish is my command, O Great Mage.” He flicked the reins. “Hyup, you flea-bitten mongrels.”

Despite all the name-calling, he was fond of the animals, for all their biting, shitting, smelling, and overall stubbornness. Sypha told him that he was just like them and that was why they got along so well. Although, when he’d tried to tease her about it, (“Well you love me, so what does that say about the horses?”) she’d only laughed and patted him on the cheek (“It’s the other way around, _Treffy_. I grew up dealing with horses, so of course I love you.”). He’d left the teasing alone after that. 

He dropped Sypha off at the entrance of the castle, and then drove the horses toward where he vaguely remembered the old family stables being. She’d protested, of course, because nothing could ever be _easy_ when it came to dealing with Sypha (and he wouldn’t have it any other way), but he’d managed to sway her by mentioning the library again. “Come on, Sypha. I can board a few horses without adult supervision. Even _I_ can’t cock that up.” 

He also wanted to see how Alucard had changed the ancestral home, to see how much still matched his (fuzzy, and growing alarmingly fuzzier) memories of the old place. He hadn’t said anything about that, but he as sure Sypha knew anyway. That woman knew just about everything. Much to his...disappointment? Relief? the stables were simple stables in the same place where they had always been, nothing changed about them except the fact that it was no longer a pile of ash and the charred bones of the few horses they hadn’t been able to safely free. 

Trevor took his time unhitching the horses from the wagon, gave each of the beasties a thorough rub down before making sure they had enough hay and water for the evening. And then, as an afterthought, he gave them some oats as well. He figured that they had earned them after surviving the long trek. Once that was dealt with, he pulled whatever of the things he figured Sypha would want and that he would rather die than just leave laying around for anyone to steal, leaving only the bare essentials, like their dried provisions and thinks like that in the bed of the wagon to collect the next day. There was sure to be food in the castle, no reason to mess with their rations. And damn if his stomach didn’t rumble at the thought of a warm, home-cooked meal. And a bath. And a bed. He may be a Belmont, may have had the delicateness bred out of his blood generations back, but he was human and the common sense to take advantage of the creature comforts where he could. 

When he entered the foyer of the castle, he was surprised to see that, despite the fact that all other signs of the battle’s carnage from the previous were gone, the melted pipes were still, well, melted. Other than that, it looked whole, and most likely better than it had ever looked, or at least than it had in a long time, not that Trevor would know. The space that had once been dank and dreary (and full of vampires) was now brightly lit with more of Dracula’s self-sustaining torches than Trevor had ever seen in his life. He also had no idea where he could even _begin_ to look for Sypha or Alucard. His memories of the Castle (between their fight with the Devil himself) were of the way the passageways were an absolute labyrinth, and he had little desire to die of starvation because he took a left instead of a right and got swallowed up by the inner workings of the Beast, So he did what any sensible man in his situation would do.

“ _ **Alucard!**_ ”

He waited mere moments before he felt an unnatural breeze brush by him, and only Belmont training and the expectation of this similar trick kept him from trying to stake Alucard (or jump out of his skin once more) when he felt the brush of cold lips against his ear.

“I’m not, contrary to your belief, deaf, Belmont. Nor am I a dog for you to summon.”

Despite himself, Trevor felt a shit-eating grin slide onto his face. He had _missed_ this dry humor of Alucard’s, the way the treat of teeth and bite always sat just below the surface, as if, if Trevor dug himself in deep enough, he’d get snapped up. It said something about why he was the way he was that the possibility sent the chill of thrill up his spine, as was sensible. 

“And yet, here you are, summoned by me calling you. What does that say about you, I wonder?”

“It says, that I am a very patient man, even to those who insist on testing the limits of that.”

“What can I say, Goldilocks, I can needle with the best of them. In fact, my sisters used to bemoan the fact that my needlepoint was ahead theirs by miles.” Mentioning his family, like always, poked at the wound that had never really scarred over, but no longer felt as raw as it once was. 

“Hmm. Was that before or after they started learning spellcraft behind your back?”

And Alucard knew just how to needle him as well. He spun around to face the bastard, smile replaced with a deep scowl. “For the last time, my family-”

“-Did in fact practice magic. Often and in great quantities. I found runes etched into the stone work of your home, and more books on the subject in your library. I’m sure there were tapestries with spellwork weaved into them or smaller charms that were lost to the fires. The Belmonts did, without a doubt, practice magic.” The bastard had the audacity to _smirk_ at him after that too, and if Trevor wasn’t holding all of his and Sypha’s belongings, he would have dropped the smug dick to the floor right then and there. And Alucard knew it too, because his smile got a little wider as he watched Trevor grind his teeth. “Now, if you’re done debating your family history, I’ll show you to the bathroom, because you positively stink.” He started

“I smell like roses, Your Royal Highness of the Damned.”

“You smell like you haven’t bathed in months and then rolled around in filth with the local pigs. And stale beer.”

“I’m going to take a bath, _not_ because I agree with you, but because I’ve been dreaming of one since we left Targoviste.”

“If you hadn’t planned on bathing, I would have made you sleep with the horses.”

Trevor snorted. “Sypha wouldn’t’ve let you.”

“It’s not Sypha’s house, is it?” His voice carried a sharp edge to it that made Trevor fall back a step, suddenly wary of the man. What had happened in the last hour that had made Alucard so sour at Sypha? “Please keep up, Belmont, you don’t have all day.”

“Bossy bossy.” 

“Some of us prefer to be efficient with our time, instead of wasting it dawdling.”

“Says the _immortal_ who hid in an underground chamber for a year.”

“We’re here.” Alucard stopped abruptly, making Trevor run into his back, colliding with a small “Oomph.” 

“What are you made out of, bricks? Could’ve broken my nose if I was going any faster.”

“Mmm, and how tragic that would have been. Give me your things, I’ll take them to Sypha, and if you leave your clothes outside the door, one of the constructs will take them and wash them.”

Trevor decided to ignore the word “constructs,” he simply did not have the mental energy to even begin to deal with everything that entailed at the moment. “What am I supposed to do, walk around naked as Adam until my clothes are clean?”

“When have the rules of human decency ever stopped you from doing anything in your life?”

He wanted to argue with that, but then he realized he...couldn’t, so instead he shoved the pile of things into Alucard’s chest a _bit_ more aggressively than necessary and shrugged off his coat before starting on his shirt. Alucard gave him a rather strange look, and Trevor just smirked. “What? Planning on sticking around for the show?”

“ _Definitely_ not. Make sure to actually _utilize_ the soap.”

“Eat shit and die you asshole.”

“Fuck you too.”

Once Alucard had swept himself up and walked away in the opposite direction quickly enough for Trevor to be self-assured that he had won that little bout, he opened the door into the bathroom, slipped in, and finished changing there. Contrary to the popular belief of, well, everyone who knew him, he did have some concept of manners. Clothes semi-neatly piled in front of the door, he turned toward the bathtub and realized it was empty. Of _course_ the bastard hadn’t even bothered to fill the tub _or_ tell him where the well was. It was damp, though, so Sypha must have figured it out. And there were unnecessary knobs and levers littering the walls around the tub. Dracula must have had the absolute strangest taste in interior decoration. He looked around the room for several minutes before coming back to the tub and examining the knobs more closely. Gingerly, he tried one of them, and he heard a hissing sound emanate from the pipes, which made him think he was on the right track. After experimenting with a few more, a stream a steaming water jetted out from a few holes in the sides of the tub and steadily began to fill it. 

“Ha. Who’s an idiot now? Not me. Trevor Belmont, Last of His Name, Slayer of Dracula, Defeater of The Devil’s Castle.” 

A quick search in the wash stand revealed towels, cloths, and, yes, soap. Once the tub was full, he turned the knobs and sank into the hot water with one long sigh, and he didn’t get out until the water was too cold to stand. He was unsurprised to find that his clothes were not, in fact, waiting for him outside the door, so he just tucked the towel firmly around his waist and wandered off into the halls, feeling decidedly more up to the task of wandering the halls. After about 15 minute’s exploration, he found the library and in it, Sypha, completely absorbed in whatever book she was reading and dressed in some of what Trevor could only assumer were Alucards clothes, the pants cuffed multiple times and the sleeves of the shirt pushed up to her biceps. He sauntered in and sat on the floor next to her. 

“I see you found the bathroom, but no clothes.” She barely glanced up from her book, but he saw the sly smile. “If you’re trying to seduce me, it won’t work. I found some of Adrian’s mother’s medical journals and they’re fascinating.” 

“Are you sure I can’t tempt you away?”

“No. I’ve already told you I’m _busy_. Go bother Adrian if you want someone to do.”

“Meh.” He flopped onto his back, staring up at the vaulted ceilings. “Does he seem odd to you, or is he just being a dick to me? Because I can understand him being a dick to me. But his whole attitude is…something is off.” 

Sypha closed the book with a snap and looked over at him, troubled expression clear. “Yes I agree that he has been acting distant. But it is also hard to have sudden unexpected house guests. Or so I have been told. I never experienced that myself of course. He just needs to get used to having real, breathing people in his home and he’ll be fine. And he’s still sad. We need to warm up the house.”

“If you say so.”

She leaned over and pecked him on the lips. “What have you learned over this past year, if not that I am always right?”

“I learned you snore very loudly.”

“Shut up!”

They fell into each other laughing, and Trevor shook his misgivings. Sypha was right, as per usual. Everyone just needed some time.

\---

Sypha had begun to hole herself up into the library, filling books upon books with all the available Seeker knowledge she had in her possession, seizing the chance to finally sit in one place and not have to worry about any of the wear and tear from traveling on the road affecting the tomes, so more often than not, Trevor found himself working with Alucard to fix up things around the Castle or clear more rubble from the grounds. Alucard kept trying to shoo him away, but Trevor had always been an ornery bastard and he had no plans of stopping anytime soon, so he threw himself into whatever it was Alucard was doing that day with vigor. 

“Belmont, you don’t know the first thing about engineering or plumbing or anything like that, so I don’t know how you expect to be anything other than _in my way_ right now.”

“I’m not going to argue with you about that, because you’re right and I have no problem admitting it. But I can move away all the fucking rocks blocking your metal machines you self-righteous prick.”

“I can do that myself.”

“Well none of it’s going to get done if you just stand here arguing with me.”

“You’re arguing with _me_!”

“ _You’re_ staring at my chest!”

“I am- _what_?” 

Trevor had taken to doing the manual labor shirtless, seeing as he only had the one shirt and he rather liked it a lot. Besides, the spring was beginning to turn into summer and that meant it was warm enough not to need one. And Alucard had been shooting him sideways glances every so often as he’d worked earlier, _clearly_ staring at his torso. Which had been part of the unofficial “Plan,” as Sypha had taken to calling it, but also provided Trevor with his own sort of gratification of watching Alucard trying to pretend to be disinterested. It was cute, when it wasn’t completely infuriating.

“Don’t be absurd.” Alucard snapped.

“No need to feel ashamed about it.” Trevor paused to lift a rather sizable rock and move it to the huge wheelbarrows that had been set aside for Alucard and Sypha to dump outside at a later time. “I’ve been known to turn many heads in my time. All to do with my genetic rugged good looks and roguish charm, I’m afraid. You’d hardly be the first.”

“If you want to brag about you conquesting of naïve village girls, you can go join the other animals in the stable, Belmont. I have no desire to hear any of it.” If Trevor hadn’t been listening for it, he surely would have missed the faint tones of jealousy layered under Alucard’s cool disdain.

“Oh please, Alucard. Give me a bit more credit.” There he was, once again, toeing the line. “It wasn’t just the naïve village _girls_.”

Several tense moments passed between them, eyes locked in unspoken challenge. Trevor wasn’t sure if the man would rush him or run away, and tensed his muscles slightly in preparation for the former. But Alucard just _snarled_ at him, which had certainly _not_ been expected, and then he spun on his heel and strode out of the chamber, leaving Trevor alone amongst the rubble. He blinked in surprise, trying to process what _exactly_ had happened before shaking his head and getting back to work.

What _good_ was it to try and get Aluvard to warm back up to their presence, to bring him back into the fold, if every time they got close, he ran off again? Sypha was having similar problems, he knew, and it was troubling him. What had _happened_ that made him so _angry_ with them? It wasn’t easier when he seemed to forget that he was angry and it almost felt like old times, when he would laugh at a joke or rib them in a familiar way, and then without warning, he would close himself off again, ice once more. 

It came to a head at dinnertime. Trevor had taken advantage of the bath, still feeling exhausted but _significantly_ better once the sweat and grime of the day and been scraped away, and now ready to tackle the issue of dinner. Alucard’s constructs had been preparing meals for them while they’d been here, or at least, he assumed that’s what had been doing the cooking; he was highly skeptical of the idea of Alucard taking time out of his day to do so. But Trevor had grown weary of the same blandly perfect meals day after day, and it had been a while since he’d had a place to do more with food than just keep Sypha from ruining it over the campfire, and he was going to take advantage ot it. 

Apparently Sypha had had the same idea, though, because he found her in the kitchen, pointing animatedly at something in a glass jar while Alucard looked passively bored. When she noticed his presence, her smile got impossibly wider and she waved him in. 

“Trevor, _look_! The castle has herbs and spices that I’ve never even _heard_ of before!”

“Yeah, well, it’s a magically powered castle that can go anywhere, I’d expect so. Or at least, it used to be able to, before you broke it.”

“I did _not_ break it!” 

“You broke it.” “You broke it.”

“Why is it the only time you can agree with each other is when you’re unfairly accusing me of something I didn’t do? I’ve told you a thousand times-”

“-‘I don’t break things.’ Yes, yes, so you’ve said.” Trevor waved her off and pulled the jar from her hands, examining it closely. It was half full of a ground brown powder, and when he pulled the lid off, he recoiled from the sharp, heady smell. “Ugh what _is_ that?”

Alucard smelled it as well, wrinkling his nose. “I don’t recall the name, but I believe my mother baked with it sometimes.”

“Hmmm. Well, whatever it is, it’s going back wherever it came from.” He closed the lid tightly before he handed it back to Sypha. “And you, my blood-sucking friend, where do you keep the food?”

“Why?”

“So I can piss on it.” Trevor rolled his eyes. “To cook something, obviously.”

Sypha turned from where she was looking through other jars in a cabinet to clap her hands together in excitement. “Will you let me help this time?”

“Not a chance in hell, Sypha.”

“A Belmont being chivalrous?” Alucard drawled, arms crossed as he leaned back against one of the counters. “How droll.”

Trevor snorted. “Nothing chivalrous about it. For all of our magician’s wonderful talents, she’s an absolute disaster when it comes to food. There were quite a few hungry nights before I convinced her to stop trying to ‘help.’”

“And what exactly is wrong with the meals already being prepared for you?”

“Nothing, they’re perfect. And that’s the problem. So if you would ever so kindly show me where you keep the food and then the both of you get the hell out so I can cook in peace.”

“ _You_ are kicking _me_ out my own kitchen? I must say, you’ve been terribly presumptions these past weeks for someone who came into my home _uninvited_.”

“Alucard…” Sypha tried, but Alucard shoved himself upright, pulling up to his full height.

“Both of you, actually, have barged into my home, imposed yourselves on me, thrown everything into disarray, insisted upon being underfoot, and now you, Trevor _Fucking_ Belmont, are trying to order me around like I’m some child who must be told to keep his hands off the hot stove?! Just how much longer are you two going to insist on playing house until the novelty wears off and you decide to leave me in _peace_.” 

It was Trevor’s turn to cross his arms, ignoring the pointed warning look Sypha was giving him. “What’s crawled up your ass and died there?” Sypha stepped in the space between them, putting a gentle hand on Alucard’s shoulder

“Adrian, we thought you’d be happy we came back.”

“Well you thought _wrong_!”

“What is your fucking _problem_?”

“My _problem_?” Alucard roared. “I killed my father in my childhood bedroom and then sat in the ruins of my home with the ghosts of my past for a year _alone_ while you two traipsed through all of Wallachia together! ” 

“Oh, come now Adrian, that isn’t fair! We invited you to come with us!”

“Yes out of pity and a misplaced sense of obligation, which is why I declined.” 

In a rage, Sypha threw her hands up and then, on impulse (Trevor knew it was), slapped the man across the face. It certainly hurt her hand more than his face, but Trevor still winced at the resounding sound it made as the slap connected, and she left the kitchen without a word. Trevor looked between the entrance and Alucard, how stood stock still, watching him impassively.

“Are you going to strike me as well?”

“No. Wouldn’t want to impose on your person any longer.”

He left to go find Sypha before she set something on fire.

\---

After he’d had his fill of standing in the kitchen, processing exactly what had just happened to him, Alucard ran his hands down his face. He’d barely felt it when Sypha stuck him, but there was a phantom pain. Trevor’s cold anger surprised him more than the blow. If anyone was going to have stuck him, Alucard would have assumed it would have been him. He was the one prone to physical aggression, Alucard would have expected that. But Sypha? She was the one who pointed out when someone had done something worthy of her ire before leaving them to stew in their thoughts. It was for the best, anyway. Better than sitting in hope, wondering if they would ever come back, wondering if they’d accept him. No, he’d been right a year ago to stay behind. He’d seen the way they’d grown closer, leaning into each other’s space. The touching, when they thought no one was looking, soft looks, private smiles that had made his heart ache. Being alone had been agony, but better than the constant pain that serving as a extra piece in their travels, an unwanted hanger-on taking up space, eventually resented. 

He went to their room, hovering outside the door to see if he’d succeeded in damaging the last vestiges of their relationship, if they’d leave him again, finally, instead of stringing him along, filling him with false hope that would only be ripped away once more when they decided they were bored once more. The door was cracked, and he hovered outside, listening.

“...a mistake, Trevor. I thought he’d be happy to see us again, but he’s just froze _more_.”

“I know. I know. Shhh.”

“Maybe we should just go. He clearly doesn’t feel the same way. No point in throwing ourselves against a wall.”

There was rustling, and then the sound of a soft kiss. “Should we leave in the morning?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t _planning_ on-”

“We don’t have to figure it out in this exact moment.”

“Since when are you the calm one?”

“I’ve been known to have a good idea from time to time. Now, I’m going to go finish that dinner I promised.”

For the first time in a very long time (two years since his father had tried to kill him, he realized), Alucard was too slow to react in time. His brain was trying to process what the two had meant, trying to combat the growing hope rising in his chest. All of which meant that when Trevor opened the door, Alucard got caught hovering outside the door like a mischievous child. Trevor’s expression went from open shock to more carefully schooled irritation.

“You know, you might what to look up ‘hypocrisy,’ because you yelling at us, yelling at _Sypha_ , about imposing on space and then following us to our bedroom is the perfect fucking example of it.”

Before he could respond, Sypha came up behind Trevor, peering around him to get a good look at Alucard. “Does your face hurt?”

“Not...particularly?”

“Good. Did you need something?”

“I’m not sure.” The honesty of the answer himself as well as Trevor, but Sypha just looked like it was what she’d expected.

“Then please let Trevor go make dinner, and we’ll talk after we’ve eaten. I’m still angry at you, and it isn’t helping that I’m hungry.”

He wanted to protest, to argue his case, but he also knew he was in the wrong no matter what his justifications were, and trying to push would only further damage things, so he inclined his head slightly. “Of course. I...will find you later then, I suppose.” Her face softened slightly, and she nodded in acknowledgment. 

The air was heavy with discomfort as Alucard moved aside to let Trevor past, and he lingered a moment longer, watching his tense frame disappear down the hall to the stairwell, feeling Sypha’s gaze boring into him as every second passed. When Trevor was gone, he cast one glance back at Sypha before vanishing as well.

\---

It took Trevor some slamming of slamming of dishes and doors and perhaps over-aggressively chopping the vegetables before he felt better. By the time he and Sypha were wolfing down bowls of stew, he was almost over the whole affair. _Almost_. The time alone had given time to mull over his thoughts. He wasn’t angry at Alucard’s treatment of _him_ , God knew he’d gotten worse from strangers (worse from his own family when he still had one), but he was indignant on Sypha’s behalf that he’d yelled at her. He knew she could take care of herself, and didn’t need protecting or people fighting over for her honor or any silly notion like that, but it had been so out of the ordinary of their dynamic that he felt off-kilter. 

“I hadn’t realized…” She broke the silence, drawing his attention away from his food. “I hadn’t realized he hadn’t thought he could join us.”

“In his defence, I hadn’t even considered the fact that there could be an _us_ until you brought it up.”

“He was so insistent on staying.”

“Well he’s a stubborn bastard. We all are, in our own ways I suppose. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t.”

“I’m not _stubborn_.” She playfully kicked at him under the table.

“When I found you, you insisted on trying to go _back_ into the catacombs where a Stone Cyclops had just been living because you were chasing down a fairy tale.”

“And I was _right_ about that!”

“It’s still stubbornness when you’re right!”

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh?” He arched an eyebrow. “What would you call that then?”

“Educated opinionation.”

“What about when you _insisted_ on going into the ghoul pit because you were _certain_ that someone had hidden spell scrolls in the back and you almost lost your hand and-”

“Okay okay you’ve made your point! Maybe, sometimes, I can be-”

“-Stubborn? Downright mulish?”

“Keep it up and you’ll be Sleeping with the mules.

“You know you love me.”

“I’m going to freeze your balls to the inside of your thigh.”

“That's the nicest threat you've made in a while. You must be going soft.”

“I’ll show you soft.” 

They broke off into peals of laughter, dinner abandoned in favor of Sypha getting up from her chair to sit in Trevor’s lap and kiss him breathless. Trevor certainly had no complaints, happy to melt into his chair and let Sypha take what she wanted. She backed off before too long, though, which Trevor was simultaneously grateful and incensed. He knew they still needed to have a conversation with Alucard, to resolve the storm that had settled over them, but Sypha was warm on him and he was still, even after a year, desperate for whatever pure affection he could get, chasing the thrill of skin against skin with the knowledge that the day after he could experience it again. 

But he knew that there were more important matters at hand, so when Sypha departed just as unexpectedly as she had arrived and pulled him to his feet, Trevor followed with minimal complaining. It didn’t stop him from clomping after her grumpily for a few moments, though. He stopped once he realized he truly had no idea where it was their quarry could have hidden himself away, and he brought the matter up to Sypha. 

“How do you even know where he’s going to be?”

“You’re the one who grew up in a house. If you were upset about something, where would you hide yourself away?”

“Oh. _Oh_. He’s in his bedroom.”

“Then let’s go.”

They remembered the way to the bedroom, at least, which Trevor counted as a minor blessing, and Sypha rapped her knuckles against the one, two, three times before stepping back from the door, waiting at his side. There was a long wait, but eventually the door swung open to reveal Alucard, who looked slightly wary, but still stepped back to let them in. 

“I believe we need to have a conversation.”

“You’re damn right we do.” 

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense.” Alucard sat in a in a high backed chair, legs swung over one of the arms in forced casualty. Sypha sat on the floor slightly in front of him, leaving Trevor to sit on a toy chest. The three of them exchanged glances, each waiting to see if the others would speak first, until Trevor got sick of pussyfooting around.

“Are you done being an ass now?”

It looked as if Alucard would snap back, would give him a reason to let out the heat and frustration that had started boiling back to the top, but instead, he did the opposite and sunk into the chair like a marionette whose strings had been cut. “Yes.”

“You do know we didn’t want to leave you alone in this mausoleum, don’t you?” Sypha sat a hand on the blond’s. “Our offer was genuine. There was no pity in it, no ulterior motive.”

“You say that, and you might mean it on some level, but we all know you would have gotten tired of my presence. Would have resented me for the lack of privacy. I know you two are...romantically involved. And I won’t say I didn’t react with jealousy at first, but it’s not my place. But...I couldn’t bear to have you around me, enjoying what I could not, knowing that sooner or later, you’d grow bored once more, chafe at the restraints of being in someone else’s home, and leave me again.”

Sypha tried to say something comforting, but it was drowned out by the harsh bark of Trevor’s laughter. “And I thought _I_ was supposed to be the thick one.”

“ _Trevor_.” “Excuse me?”

Trevor stood and came closer, stopping just behind Sypha. “If you’re done pitying yourself, we’d like to say our share.”

Alucard blinked slowly at him. “Go ahead.”

“Maybe we should have made our intentions clear from the start. We planned to come back to stay. We planned to make this a _home_.” 

“You...what?”

“What, did you think we were just going to pop in for a visit, make a nuisance of ourselves, and then leave again without so much as a ‘fuck you’?”

“If I’m being honest? Yes.”

With a snort, Trevor toed at Sypha’s knee. “And you thought I was thick.”

“I did _not_. Stop putting yourself down. But yes, Alucard, we missed you. Trevor and I are involved, we never made a secret about it, and I refuse to say I regret any of it, because I don’t. But we both agreed that it felt...off. We were always meant to be three, not just in the stories, but after as well. Trevor and I are only two parts of the balance, we were off-center.”

“You can’t say you didn’t feel it too.”

“You can’t tell me that Trevor Belmont, last of the house of monster slayers, wants to take _Dracula’s son_ to bed.”

“Look,” Trevor closed the gap, standing well within the dhampir’s space. He only had to lash out, and he would go flying backwards. “I love Sypha. I love everything about being with her. And yes, my family and I hunted monsters, including vampires, but that’s besides the fucking point you daft son of a bitch. I love _you_. Not despite being Dracula’s son, not despite anything.” This was dangerous. All of Trevor’s instincts were screaming that he was making a terrible decision in baring his heart like this. His breath caught in his throat, and he had to pull back slightly, missing how Alucard followed him slightly.

Sypha picked up on his distress and stood, wordlessly placing one hand on his shoulder and then other on Alucard’s, connecting them for the first time in a year. “We _had_ to leave. Your father’s army was still terrorizing the people, and the Church was still destroying lives, and we couldn’t just let that be. I’m sorry you were hurting and we weren’t here to help you. Not that was an excuse for being terrible to us when we came back. But we understand. And maybe we could have explicitly told you our plans, but we thought you would pick up on it.”

Alucard allowed himself a wry smile, reaching up to lay a hand against Sypha’s cheek “You know what they say happens when you assume.”

“Yeah,” Trevor said, deadpan. “You make an ass out of the sulky bastard hiding on your ancestral lands.” 

“Bite me, Belmont.”

“If you’re offering, sure.”

“Stop that.” Sypha batted at them. “Do you understand now?”

“I-”

“Look. Aluc- _Adrian_.” Trevor corrected himself, and he watched the other man’s eyes widen slightly at his use of his name. He found that he rather liked the way it felt in his mouth, and he tried it again. “Adrian.”

“That is my name, yes.”

“We’re not having you on. We mean it. We want to make this our home too.”

“You’ve been cold for so long.” Sypha added. “Let us in. Please.”

Adrian sucked in a shuddering breath, and suddenly Sypha and Trevor found themselves pulled into his lap on the chair. “Yes.”

Trevor smiled fondly as Sypha pulled Alucard in for a kiss, and then Alucard pulled him down as well and soon they were a mess of happy tears and slightly too-wet kisses. The position was uncomfortable, too cramped and twisted, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Here, among the two other people he loved best in the world, Trevor finally felt like he was home.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. i can be found [here](https://theunacceptablepylades.tumblr.com/) on tumblr or [@thedaedpoets](https://twitter.com/thedaedpoets) on twitter. and if you like what i write, consider buying me a [coffe](https://ko-fi.com/queerlydeparted)


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